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Beacons and Out-of-School Time

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Career Development for Adolescents

Youth Development in Education Reform

Young Adults and Multiple Pathways Programs

Training and Technical Assistance for the Field

YDI’s National Beacons Strategy has two primary components: Technical Assistance and the Beacons Young Adolescent Initiative.

A. We provide technical assistance to strengthen the ability of Beacons and other out-of-school-time programs to provide quality programs. Technical assistance includes:

• Outcomes-Based Program Planning and Design uses program data to assess and define appropriate program goals and activities to support them.
  
  Demystifying Outcomes
  
  
• Training, Networking, and Coaching helps youth workers, school staff, and others develop youth development skills and strategies to improve outcomes. YDI uses the Advancing Youth Development curriculum to incorporate an increased focused on results, and conduct training sessions and provide follow-up networking and coaching to help practitioners apply the concepts and principles of youth development at their sites.
  
  YDI Publications
  

YDI is working with the Center for Municipal Government Performance (CMGP) at the Fund for the City of New York to implement Computerized Neighborhood Environment Tracking (ComNET) in Beacons. ComNET was developed by CMGP to enable citizens to improve their communities. Through ComNET neighborhood residents identify and report to government and community leaders street-level conditions that are of concern to their communities. Residents are trained to use simple handheld computers to accurately and precisely document safety hazards and other conditions. ComNET provides opportunities for Beacons youth to become engaged in their communities while simultaneously addressing skills that are necessary for personal and academic success. It provides practice in using technology, oral and written communication, understanding graphic representations and working with groups. People also use the information they collect to inform community leaders and government, thus developing skills of civic participation.

B. Beacons Young Adolescent Initiative (BYA) is a four-year project that seeks to improve outcomes for young people ages nine to 14 by increasing their participation in high quality activities during the after-school, evening, and weekend hours. The initiative is being implemented in New York and San Francisco, with several other Beacon cities serving as partners and sharing their experiences.

Young adolescence is a time of vulnerability and special opportunity. Research shows that young people benefit significantly when they participate in out-of-school-time programs. But many, as they enter adolescence, attend these programs less consistently and those who are most in need tend not to participate at all. Investments by government and private funders in non-school-hour programs offer the possibility of improved outcomes for young people who participate consistently in these programs.

YDI is working with the San Francisco Beacon Initiative (SFBI) to provide incentive grants, technical assistance and training to Beacon sites in both cities. The initiative draws upon exemplary practices and research to increase outreach, participation, engagement, and retention of young people. Beacon organizations from several other cities are also involved as partners. Lessons learned will be disseminated nationally.

BYA objectives include:

• Increasing the knowledge and capacity of Beacons to improve the participation of young adolescents.
• Increasing the understanding of participating communities of why youth do or do not participate in Beacons and other similar programs.
• Increasing the knowledge and capacity of Beacons to improve its outreach efforts.
• Strengthening the capacity of YDI and other intermediaries to improve the quality of Beacon services to young adolescents and to increase their knowledge about how intermediaries work effectively.
• Applying the lessons from this work more widely in Beacons and establishing or strengthening efforts by policy makers, intermediaries, and practitioners to establish policies about young adolescent participation in the initiative cities and nationally.
• Increasing the knowledge and capacity of Beacons to improve the participation of young adolescents.

Video: Beacons National Conference, 2011

Beacons Young Adolescent Initiative - Evaluation Update 2008-2009, Executive Summary

Beacons Young Adolescent Initiative - Evaluation Update, June 2009

Beacons Young Adolescent Initiative - Cohort Study - Update Report, Cohort Survey 2, Winter 2009

Beacons Young Adolescent Initiative - Evaluation Update, January 2010

Youth Today - N.Y. Out-of-School Time Program Shows Sharp Improvement

Youth Today - Service Movement Creates Opportunities for After-School

New York Nonprofit Press - Beacons: Building Community by Engaging All in Service

C. ComNET: Computerized Neighborhood Environment Tracking

With the Center for Municipal Government Performance (CMGP) at the Fund for the City of New York (FCNY), YDI has worked to implement ComNET in youth programs. ComNET was developed by CMGP to enable citizens to improve their communities. Through ComNET, neighborhood residents identify and report to government and community leaders street-level conditions that are of concern to their communities. Residents are trained to use simple handheld computers to accurately and precisely document safety hazards and other conditions. ComNET provides opportunities for youth to become engaged in their communities while simultaneously addressing skills that are necessary for personal and academic success. It provides practice in using technology, oral and written communication, understanding graphic representations, and working with groups. People also use the information they collect to inform community leaders and government, thus developing skills of civic participation.